Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 6:21 pm Post subject: How did you commemorate an important milestone with a trip?

I never thought I'd make it this far . . . although to some of you on the boards who've lived more fully, 35 is a tiny milestone. Regardless, I'd like to reward myself next May with a lovely, no-regrets vacation. I'd like to go someplace that is truly spectacular next year.

On that note, would you mind sharing stories about how you commemorated an important milestone in your life with travel or a trip? (I guess the most popular way of commemorating a milestone in life is the honeymoon, but as I'll be traveling alone, that's not quite what I'm looking for.)

NOTE: Right now, I'm kind of leaning toward someplace tropical because I really got my butt kicked in Paris last year. Specifically, the man in the metro ticket booth told me off in French for not specifying that I wanted to buy a carte d'orange for the week. His exact words were "When you go to the bakery, you don't just ask for "bread" do you?" That sort of tell-off just wouldn't work in the States, but I do have revenge fantasies of assaulting this man with a loaf of Wonder Bread. _________________"Help! Help! I'm being repressed!" --- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

How wonderful to have a celebration trip to look forward to. Many of my celebration trips have been to Paris. All have involved food. I tend to chose my destination on the restaurants/ markets I want to visit or type of food I desire. As you will be on your own have you considered a resort like Club Med. My son works for Club Med and we spent a week at Club Med Lindeman Island in 2005. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The staff were excellent, the food exceeded my expectations and we met really nice people. You can choose to sit on your own or share a table with other guests. We have remained in contact with people we met while there. The guests were a mixture of ages from families to older people. Probably best to avoid school holidays though.
Here's my thoughts on it if you are interested.
http://winosandfoodies.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/03/club_med_lindem.html_________________Barbara

An almost trip was on my 6th birthday. My dad knew somebody who worked on a beeg ship and I was taken with my family and my uncle to the ship where we had a little birthday cake and I had Happy Birthday sung to me.

The other not-going-anywhere-but-did-once trip that marked a milestone was when I was 7. Before I was taken to Guy's Hospital in London for major heart surgery I was taken to the Cutty Sark ship. I think it interested my dad more than me, but I do remember it.

Most birthdays since I've hit 30 were days I took myself out and did something special in another town. A good meal a mini bottle of Champagne and then I'd buy myself a present. Happy Birthday to me and then home._________________Confusion comes fitted as standard.

Ok, My birthday is a triplicity of Dante's sacred number. The day is the trinity of trinities, the month the same number in the old calendar and the year (last two numbers) also equals the same number._________________Confusion comes fitted as standard.

Last year, I went alone to Paris after taking care of my beloved blind dog with canine alzheimers died. I was so depressd. My husband doesn't enjoy big cities, did not like Paris so off I went, had a fantastic time. I think also it was meant to be because we do go to France every year,
We had our tickets paid for and bookings and the dark happned he was told he had a rare cancer, Bile Duct, he had the whipple operation, 21 days in hospital. He's in remission now and we are going to France again in early September. Lif is looking up fpor us._________________Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly
..................................MFK Fisher

Harpospeaking, I haven't really taken trips to commemorate milestones (yet), but I've taken a couple of awesome trips just because I could. Tropical sounds lovely, but if you're as into food as most folks on this blog are, maybe you'd enjoy coupling it with cooking lessons, or a food-themed tour of some sort. If you're looking for possible company, I read about an inexpensive type of cruise - I think maybe from EasyJet? - where you basically use the cruise ship as a place to sleep and meet people, and you dock all day and do whatever you want. I'm pretty sure the trip I read about was in the Caribbean.

About my not commemorating milestones yet, though - I'm thinking of doing some traveling after I finish my Ph.D., hopefully sometime between January and March. So if anyone can think of a spectacular place to go in those months, do share! Note: I'll likely be a small 26-year-old female traveling alone, so I'd prefer safe and spectacular.

I'm not seeing any pm's... assuming you meant private messages and not Prime Ministers... tho' I'm fortunately not seeing any of those.

My birthday is the 9th of November, originally the ninth month and I was born in 1963 - 6 + 3 making 9. Dante describes 9 as a sacred number in the Vita Nuova because it's root is 3 which signifies the Holy Trinity - there's also the 'Holy' Trinity in Hinduism of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu and Shiva the Destroyer and Lord of Regeneration. This year I shall be 44, but NEXT year... a nine birthday!!

Then I may, cash permitting go to Paris or Venice... or possibly Australia or NZ (my ex-girlfriend is in NZ). Or I may go to Brighton and just spend a week there by the sea... wishing I was living there... sigh!

Harpospeaking,

I reckon you should go back to Paris... with a loaf of wonder bread and track that guy down... to his lair!!! Tho' I admit Costa Rica sounds good and you'd surely get good coffee there too.

As both of mine so far were almost-trips, I really ought to get around to a definite one._________________Confusion comes fitted as standard.

Griffin--I wonder why you aren't getting the personal messages? Immediately after this post, I will try to pm--

My guess was wrong--I got the 9, (trinity of trinities=9, plus I looked up the Dante clue) and I got the 1963 (I knew your age from a previous post!) but the old calendar tripped me up--though NOVember is a giant hint, like NOVena. I guessed August, for googled reasons too fragmented to explain!

If I had a trip to take, my choice, alone or with Rich, I think I would agonize for many many days before finally choosing the Greek Islands. I was there 30 years ago, so I might be disappointed, but being there made me happy.